Australia / England, (contemporary)
Spring and the Pig Mother
- You may catch sight of her
- early in the year, when the moon
- is a bright slit
- no thicker than a new-born’s tail.
- She will be standing with arms lifted,
- pale and still as a ghost gum against the sky.
- For a bare hour
- she wraps the night around her
- and conducts it like a sea.
- A curl of her hand starts currents
- that draw the breaths
- out of all the creatures on the farm
- and sends them back, charged and fertile.
- The crops in the fields fatten,
- even the worms
- and crawling insects feel
- a new sharpness and scurry
- more boldly about their business.
- When it’s done, she stoops and shuffles
- back into the heavy skin.
- Rolling belly-up
- she invites them all to come to her.
- In the dark she takes
- their hundred sucking mouths.
© Diane Mulholland. from her personal web site: http://dianemulholland.com/.
About the Poet:
Diane Mulholland, Australia / England, (contemporary), is a poet. She was born in rural Australia and now lives in London, where she can often be found beside the Thames. Mulholland recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Her work has appeared widely in journals in the UK and Australia, including most recently Under the Radar, Long Poem Magazine, The Tangerine, The Manchester Review, Finished Creatures, Not Very Quiet, Long Poem Magazine and others. [DES-01/22]
Additional information:
- Diane Mulholland – http://dianemulholland.com/